BT 



,ls of Faith and Duty 

N9 10 



■ AT 




ENT C) H 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

©pp. (Bapijrigljt T|0. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



jftamiais; of JTattl) anH Dutp* 

EDITED BY REV. J- S. CANTWELL, D.D. 



A SERIES of short books in exposition of prominent teachings 
of the Universalist Church, and the moral and religious 
obligations of believers. They are prepared by writers selected for 
their ability to present in brief compass an instructive and helpful 
Manual on the subject undertaken. The volumes are affirmative 
and constructive in statement, avoiding controversy, while specifically 
unfolding doctrines. 

The Manuals of Faith and Duty are sold at 25 cents each. 
Uniform in size, style, and price. 



n. 
in. 

IV. 



VI. 

vn. 

vm. 

rx. 
x. 

XI. 



THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. By Rev. J, Coleman Adams, 
D.D., Brooklyn, N.Y. 

JESUS THE CHRIST. By Rev. S. Crane, D.D., Earlville, 111. 

REVELATION. By Rev. I. M. Atwood, D.D., President of 
the Theological School, Canton, N.Y. 

CHRIST IK THE LIFE. By Rev. Warren S. Woodbridge, 
Medford, Mass. 

SALVATION. By Rev. Orello Cone, D.D., President of 
Buchtel College, Akron, O. 

THE BIRTH FROM ABOVE. By Rev. Charles Follen Lee, 
Boston, Mass. 

{In Preparation.) 

THE CHURCH. By Rev. Henry W. Rugg, D.D., Providence, 
R.I. 

HEAVEN. By Rev. George Sumner Weaver, D.D., Canton, 

N.Y. 

ATONEMENT. By Rev. William Tucker, D.D., Camden, O. 
PRAYER. By Rev. George H. Deere, D.D., Riverside, Cal. 



PUBLISHED by the 

UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, 

BOSTON, I^CASS. 

Western Branch : 69 Dearborn Street, Chicago. 



j&anuals of jFattfj ano ©utg. 
No. x. 



ATONEMENT. 



BY j 
/ 

REV. WILLIAM TUCKER, D.D. 
h 



We also joy in God through ooe Lord Jesus Christ, bt whom 
we have now received the atonement. 

. Romans v. 11. 



BOSTON: 

UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE. 

1893. 




* 






ST*!*? 



Copyright, 1893, 
By the Universalist Publishing House. 






The Libr 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 
Chapter Page 

I. History of the Doctrine of Atone- 
ment 7 

II. Scriptural Statements of Atonement 

and the Suffering of Christ ... 28 

III. Universal Sacrifice and the Law of 

VlCARIOUSNESS 32 

IV. The Atonement and Law 38 

V. The Atonement and -Punishment ... 41 

VI. The Atonement of Divine Origin . . 44 

VII. The Nature of the Atonement ... 49 

VIII. The Atonement and the Universe . . 64 
IX. The Mediatorial Reign of Christ and 

the Atonement . 72 

X. The Spiritual Mission of Christ con- 
sistent with Atonement 76 

XI. The Extent of the Atonement . . . 79 

XII. The Atonement and Man ..... 86 

XIII. The Atonement and Faith 90 

XIV. The Atonement and Salvation ... 93 



2Looft on me ! 

&s 5 sfjall tie xtpltfteti on a cross 

En darkness of eclipse, anti anguis!) tircati ! 

Bo sfjall 31 lift up in mo. pierceti fjantis— 

Not into Hark, but Kgfjt ; not unto fceatfj, 

23ut life — begontr tfje rearij of guilt anti grief, 

&ije brfjole Creation, 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 
Drama of Exile. 



Wqt cross of (Efjrist ! Wc } txt centre our fyopes, tfyere tite our 
fears, tfyere fall our sins, tfyere gushes our penitence, tljere beams 
tfje ligtyt of blcssein assurance upon our tears. 

Rev. E. H. Chapin, D.D. 



ATONEMENT. 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE revealed purpose of the advent, life, 
teaching, death, and resurrection of Christ 
was the salvation of man. " His name shall be 
called Jesus, for he shall save his people from 
their sins." This is the divine mission for which 
Christ was sent into the world. " God so loved 
the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." But what is the divine 
method of saving the world by Christ ? Was 
the salvation of the human race to be purely 
an intellectual process, requiring only a divine 
teacher of the truth ? Is the production of this 
great mental, moral, and spiritual change a 
function of the reason only, when it has been 
taught by Christ ; or was the process of man's 
salvation to be ethical as well as rational, de- 
manding a perfect moral law, illustrated by the 



6 ATONEMENT. 

perfect example of a sinless life ? It is evidently 
true that man's salvation embraces rational and 
ethical changes such as perfect teaching, a per- 
fect rule of conduct, and a perfect example would 
cause. But does not salvation from sin mean 
more than this ? Does belief of the truth and obe- 
dience to law embrace all that is implied in the 
salvation of the human soul ? Has man no fac- 
ulties but intellect, conscience, and will ? Is not 
man a religious as well as an ethical being ? Is 
not piety as well as virtue a rational and natural 
part of his life ? Is man's emotional nature of 
no practical importance in the work of salvation ? 
Must not the heart be touched, the conscience 
awakened, love enkindled, and man's religious 
sensibilities quickened before he can be saved? 
Will intellectual and ethical instruction alone 
do this? If it will, then the atonement really 
has no part in the economy of salvation by 
Christ. The teacher and law-giver are able to 
save the world from sin by a system of moral 
instruction, and a process of ethical culture 
without the atonement. 

But all human experience and all human his- 
tory prove that intellectual and ethical culture 
alone have never saved men from sin either as 



ATONEMENT. 7 

individuals or as social groups ; hence a spiritual 
revelation through atonement is necessary. 

I. — The History of the Doctrine of 
Atonement. 

The history of this doctrine is an important 
part of the history of the growth of Christian 
theology. The evolution of thought on this sub- 
ject is but the result of the effort of the human 
mind to give a rational explanation, or account, 
of the phenomena presented in a large part of 
the life of Christ. The theological doctrine of 
the atonement is man's interpretation of the fact 
of atonement as stated in the Scriptures. This 
accounts for the fact that this doctrine, in its 
historical development, has been marked by 
many changes. During the first two centuries 
the Christian theologian was led to investigate 
the doctrine of the work of Christ, either by the 
attacks of heretics or the defective statements 
of professed believers. There were two views 
of the atonement regarded as heretical during 
the first two centuries, which, inasmuch as they 
presented partial views of the work of Christ, 
influenced what is held to be the orthodox state- 



8 ATONEMENT. 

nient of it. 1 These were the Gnostic and the 
Ebionite. Gnosticism appeared in two forms, 
and broached two theories respecting the person 
and work of Christ. 

That of Basilides (a. d. 125) affirmed only a 
human suffering in the Redeemer, which was 
not expiatory for two reasons : " First, because 
as merely human it was finite and inadequate 
to atone for the sins of all men; and secondly, 
because the idea of substitutional penal suffer- 
ing is inadmissible. Penal suffering, or suffering 
for purposes of justice, Basilides maintained, of 
necessity implied personal criminality in the 
sufferer, and therefore can never be endured 
by an innocent person like Christ. The prin- 
ciple of vicarious pain, in reference to justice, 
for this reason is untenable." 2 The Gnosticism 
of Marcion (a. d. 150) affirmed a divine suffer- 
ing in the Redeemer, " which, however, was only 
apparent, because the Logos having assumed a 
docetic or spectral human body, only a seeming 
suffering could occur. This suffering, like that 
in the scheme of Basilides, could not, of course, 
be expiatory." 3 

1 History of Christian Doctrine. 2 vols. By William G. T. 
Shedd, D. D. 

2 Ibid. 3 Angustine. 



ATONEMENT. 9 

The Ebionite " denied any connection between 
man and God in the person of the Redeemer, 
other than that which exists in the life of any 
and every man." * Rejecting the doctrine of expi- 
ation altogether, he occupied the position of the 
Jews and advanced Unitarians. 

1. The Apostolic Fathers. — In the writings of 
the Apostolic Fathers we obtain the views of the 
Church on the doctrine of the atonement during 
the first half of the century after the death of 
the last inspired apostle (a. d. 100-150). Ex- 
amining them, w r e find chiefly the repetition of 
Scripture phraseology without any labored at- 
tempt at doctrinal statement. There is no 
effort to construct a scientific doctrine of the 
atonement in the writings of these devout and 
consecrated disciples of Paul and John ; yet the 
idea of vicarious suffering is distinctly enun- 
ciated by them. By " vicarious " we mean that 
Christ suffered for men, and that they were ben- 
efited by his sufferings. Polycarp (a. d. 168), 
pupil of John, writes in his Epistle to the Phi- 
lippians : " Christ is our Saviour ; for through 
grace we are righteous, not by works ; for our 
sins he has taken upon himself, has become the 

1 Shedd. 



10 ATONEMENT. 

servant of us all through his death for us, our 
hope and the pledge of our righteousness. Our 
Lord Jesus Christ suffered himself to be brought 
even to death for our sins." 

Ignatius (a. d. 116) , the pupil of John, is less 
urgent than Polycarp in respect to the point of 
vicarious suffering. He is more inclined to con- 
sider the work of Christ in reference to the 
sanctification than the justification of the be- 
liever. It is a favorite view of his that the 
death of Christ brings the human soul into com- 
munion with him. And yet the vicarious suf- 
fering of Christ is recognized by Ignatius. He 
speaks of Christ as the one who gave himself to 
God as an offering and a sacrifice for us. " We 
have peace through the flesh and blood and pas- 
sion of Jesus Christ." 

In Barnabas, the pupil of Paul, we find a clear 
expression of the atoning agency of the Re- 
deemer : " The Lord endured to deliver his body 
to death, that we might be sanctified by the re- 
mission of sins which is by the shedding of that 
blood" 

Clement of Rome, a disciple of Paul, dwells 
more generally in his writings of Christ's work 
than of other parts of the Christian system, and 



ATONEMENT. 11 

speaks particularly on his death. For he says : 
"His blood was given for us, was poured out 
for our salvation. He gave, by the will of God, 
his body for our body, his soul for our soul." 1 

2. Early Patristic Teaching. — Passing from 
the Apostolic to the Primitive Fathers, we find 
some progress in the scientific statement of the 
doctrine of atonement. One characteristic of 
the early Patristic teaching which strikes the 
attention is the important part which the doc- 
trine of Satan plays in it. 2 The death of Christ 
is often represented as ransoming man from the 
power and slavery of the devil. The writer who 
exhibits this view more plainly and fully than 
any other is Irenaeus. He makes this statement: 
"The Word of God (the Logos), omnipotent and 
not wanting in essential justice, proceeded with 
strict justice, even against the Apostasy or king- 
dom of evil itself, redeeming from it that which 
was his originally, not by using violence, but by 
persuasion as it became God, so that neither 
justice should be infringed upon, nor the original 
creation of God perish." The doctrine of this 
passage is, that atonement was a ransom paid 
to the devil to redeem man from his power. 

1 Dorner, "Person of Christ." 2 Shedd, vol. ii. p. 212. 



12 ATONEMENT. 

While we find this theory of the atonement 
running through this whole period of the history 
of Christian doctrine, it was not the only theory 
held and advocated at the time. The following 
extract from the " Epistle Ad Diognetum" shows 
this : " God himself gave up his own Son a ran- 
som for us, the holy for the unholy, the good for 
the evil, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible 
for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. 
For what else could cover our sins but his right- 
eousness ? In whom was it possible for us, the 
unholy and the ungodly, to be justified, except the 
Son of God alone ? sweet exchange ! won- 
derful operation ! unlooked-for benefit ! that 
the sinfulness of many should be hidden in one, 
that the righteousness of one should justify 
many ungodly." 

3. The Alexandrine School. — Origen, who be- 
longed to the Alexandrine School of Theology, 
held that the efficacy of Christ's death extended 
to the entire apostate world, quoting in proof 
Colossians i. 20 : " By him to reconcile all things 
unto himself, whether they be things in earth or 
things in heaven." He remarks that Christ is 
the great high-priest, not only for man but for 
every rational creature. Origen also taught that 



ATONEMENT. 13 

Christ's " redeeming agency still continues in his 
state of exaltation, and that he is saving the 
apostate continually until the entire apostate 
universe is restored." 

Origen held that punishment is not judicial, 
but disciplinary. In his "Homilies upon Eze- 
kiel," he makes the following statement : " If it 
had not been conducive to the conversion of sin- 
ners to employ suffering, never would a com- 
passionate and benevolent God have inflicted 
punishment on wickedness." In other places he 
represents reformation as being the object of 
punishing the sinner. This being so, it cannot 
be the purpose of the atonement to save man 
from deserved punishment, for it is one of the 
divinely appointed means for his salvation. Ori- 
gen also rejected the doctrine of endless pun- 
ishment. This opinion is the logical conclusion 
from the preceding one, — that punishment is not 
penal, but disciplinary. For an eternal suffer- 
ing for sin cannot consist with the amendment 
of the sinner. The death of Christ is therefore 
a manifestation of God's love for man, and of 
his purpose to save him. Clement of Alexandria, 
the teacher of Origen, makes the following rep- 
resentations according to Redepenning : " The 



14 ATONEMENT. 

deep corruption of mankind fills God, whose com- 
passion for man is as unlimited as his hatred 
towards evil, not with anger, for he is never 
angry, but with the tenderest and most pitiful 
love. Hence he continually seeks all men whom 
he loves for their own sakes, and their resem- 
blance to God, as the bird seeks her young who 
have fallen from the nest. His omnipotence, to 
which nothing is impossible, knows how to over- 
come all evil and convert it into good. He 
threatens and indeed punishes, but yet only to 
reform and improve. By means of this power 
at all times here and hereafter noble minds are 
drawing nearer to God and the truth." 

4. Athanasius and the Grreek Fathers. — Atha- 
nasius composed no tract or treatise upon the 
atonement, and we must consequently deduce 
his opinions upon this subject from his inci- 
dental statements while discussing other topics. 
He says, incidentally referring to the work of 
Christ : " Christ as man endured death for us, 
inasmuch as he offered himself for that purpose 
to the Father. . . . Christ takes our sufferings 
upon himself, and presents them to the Father, 
entreating for us that they be satisfied in him. . . . 
The death of the incarnate Losros is a ransom 



ATONEMENT. 15 

for the sins of men. Laden with guilt the 
world was condemned of law ; but the Logos as- 
sumed the condemnation, and suffering in the flesh 
gave salvation to all." The views of the Greek 
writers on theology prominent in the Church at 
the time of Athanasius were mostly in substan- 
tial agreement with his opinions on the subject 
of the atonement as presented in this historical 
sketch. Minor differences there were, but they 
were not such as to imperil the safety of the 
Church by a revolution in its theology. 

5. Augustine and Grregory the Great. — Au- 
gustine (a. d. 430) is a writer whose opinions 
upon any subject should receive attention. On 
the subject of the atonement he makes this 
statement : " All men are separated from God by 
sin. Hence they can be reconciled to him only 
through the remission of sin, and this only 
through the grace of a merciful Saviour, and 
this grace through the one only victim of the 
most true and only priest." In another place he 
says : " Our Lord did not indeed transfer sin 
into his flesh as if it were the poison of the ser- 
pent, but he did transfer death, so that there 
might be in the likeness of human flesh the pun- 
ishment of sin with its personal guilt, whereby 



16 ATONEMENT. 

both the personal guilt and punishment of sin 
might be abolished from human flesh." 

On the subject of the necessity of the atone- 
ment he says : " They are foolish who say that 
the wisdom of God could not liberate men oth- 
erwise than by God's assuming humanity, being 
born of a woman and suffering at the hands of 
sinners." This statement shows that in the 
mind of Augustine the atonement was only 
necessary in the sense that it was God's choice. 

In his writings Gregory lays great stress upon 
the idea of a sacrifice offered in the death of 
Christ. He starts from the conception of guilt, 
and from this derives immediately the necessity 
of a theanthropic sacrifice. " Guilt," he says, 
" can only be extinguished by the penal offering 
to justice. But it would contradict the idea of 
justice, if for the sin of a rational being like 
man, the death of an irrational animal should 
be accepted as sufficient atonement." 

6. Anselrn's Theory of Satisfaction. — In his 
tract entitled " Cui Deus Homo," 1 Anselm begins 
and ends with the idea of the absolute necessity 
of an atonement in order to the redemption of 

1 Translated in the "Bibliotheca Sacra," October, 1854, and 
January, 1855. 



ATONEMENT. 17 

man. Everything is referred to a metaphysical 
or necessary ground, and hence we have in this 
theory the first metaphysique of the Christian 
doctrine of atonement. The fundamental posi- 
tion of Anselm is, that the atonement of the Son 
of God is absolutely or metaphysically necessary 
in order to the remission of sin. Hence in the 
very beginning of the tract he affirms that a 
mere reference to the divine benevolence with- 
out regard to divine justice cannot satisfy the 
mind that is seeking a necessary basis in the 
doctrine of atonement for salvation ; for be- 
nevolence is inclined to dispense with penal suf- 
fering, and of itself does not demand it. 

The thought that runs through all Anselm's 
reasoning is, that the atonement is made for 
God and not for man. It is to satisfy God and 
not to reconcile man. 

7. Abelard, Lombard, Aquinas. — " Abelard 
begins and ends with the benevolence of God. 
This is divorced from and not limited by his 
holiness, and is regarded as endowed with the 
liberty of indifference. The Deity can pardon 
upon repentance. There is nothing in the di- 
vine nature which necessitates satisfaction for 
past transgressions, antecedently to the remis- 

2 



18 ATONEMENT. 

sion of penalty. Nothing is needed but peni- 
tence in order to the remission of sin. The 
object of the incarnation and death of Christ is 
to produce sorrow in the human soul. The life 
and sufferings of the God-man were intended to 
make a moral impression upon hard and impeni- 
tent hearts." 

In the theory of Peter Lombard 1 the influence 
of the death of Christ is spent upon the subjec- 
tive character of the individual soul ; in soften- 
ing, subduing, and sanctifying. The claims of 
justice are met to a limited extent by the suf- 
ferings of the Redeemer. They delivered man 
from the temporal and penal consequences of 
sin, provided baptism be administered and peni- 
tence performed. 2 

Hugo Saint Victor (a. d. 1140) speaks often 
of the Deity as propitiated. " The Son of God," 
he says, " by becoming a man paid man's debt to 
the Father, and by dying expiated man's guilt." 

Aquinas answers the objection to the atone- 
ment grounded on the fact that merit and de- 
merit are personal, and that therefore vicarious 
satisfaction is impossible, by the doctrine of the 

1 Lombard wrote in 1164. 

2 Shedd, rol. ii. p. 289. 



ATONEMENT. 19 

uniomystical existence between the believer and 
the Redeemer ; founding his view upon the state- 
ment of Saint Paul, that believers are members 
of the body of Christ. Aquinas believed and 
taught the doctrine of the superabundance in the 
merits of Christ. He concedes that the suffer- 
ing of Christ is of greater value than that of 
man himself, yet claims that the latter enters 
as an element in providing for the remission 
of sin. 

8. The Council of Trent. — The following ex- 
tracts from the Canons of the Council of Trent 
enunciate the Roman Catholic soteriology : " Jus- 
tification is not the mere remission of sins, but 
also the sanctification and renovation of inward 
man through the voluntary reception of grace 
and gifts of grace, whereby an unjust man be- 
comes just, the enemy a friend, so that he may 
be an heir according to the hope of eternal life. 
The only formal cause of justification is the jus- 
tice of God, — not that by which he himself is 
just, but that by which he makes us just. And 
we are said to be justified gratuitously because 
none of these things which precede justification, 
whether faith or works, merits the grace itself of 
justification." 



20 ATONEMENT. 

9. Hugo Grrotius. — Grotius (a. d. 1645) pre- 
sented a theory of the atonement, derived from 
the doctrines and analogies of civil and crimi- 
nal law, that has had much influence in direct- 
ing and shaping the thought of the Church on 
this subject. The soteriology of Grotius is 
founded upon his idea of law and punishment, 
and the relation which these sustain to God. 
"Law," according to Grotius, "is a positive 
statute of enactment." " It is not," he says, 
"something inward in God, or in the divine 
will and nature, but is only the effect of his 
will." Law, therefore, is a mere product on the 
part of God, by which he himself is not bound, 
because it is his own work. As the enactor of 
a positive state, he has the same power to 
change or abrogate it which the law-making 
power among men possesses. The penalty of 
law is likewise a positive and not a natural and 
necessary arrangement. For law is not some- 
thing eternal in God, or in the will itself of 
God, but is a particular effect or product of his 
will. That the effects or products of the divine 
will are mutable, is very certain. A threat to 
punish is not like a promise to reward. From 
the promise to reward when accepted by another 



ATONEMENT. 21 

there arises a contract which is binding; but 
the threat to punish only declares that the trans- 
gressor deserves penalty. It follows from this 
reasoning that " God in his administration may 
pardon the offender directly, or admit a partial 
equivalent for the penalty. The sufferings and 
death of the Son of God are an exemplary exhi- 
bition of God's hatred of moral evil, and in 
connection with which it is safe and prudent 
to remit the penalty." 1 The governmental the- 
ory of atonement now so widely adopted by the 
churches claiming to be evangelical has grown 
out of, and is a modification of, the teaching of 
Grotius. 

10. Socinus. — The theory of Socinus 
(a. d. 1539-1604) respecting the work of Christ 
is stated with great directness and clearness. 
Bejecting as he did all mystery, and reducing 
Christianity to a few simple principles of natu- 
ral ethics, it was easy for him to be explicit in 
his statements and transparent in his style. He 
rejected the idea of divine justice as held by the 
Church generally. " There is no such justice 
in God," says he, u as requires absolutely and 
inexorably that sin be punished, and such as 

1 Ancient Law. By Henry S. Maine, p. 62. 



22 ATONEMENT. 

God himself cannot repudiate. There is indeed 
a perpetual and constant justice in God ; but 
this is nothing but his moral equity and recti- 
tude, by virtue of which there is no depravity or 
iniquity in any of his works." 1 

The first objection of Socinus to the doctrine 
of satisfaction was that it excluded mercy. If 
sin is punished, it is not forgiven ; and conversely, 
it is not punished. " The two ideas of satisfac- 
tion and remission exclude and expel each other. 
If God's justice is satisfied by the infliction of 
judicial suffering, there is no room for the ex- 
ercise of his mercy. If God has received a com- 
plete equivalent for the punishment due to man, 
then he does not show any compassion in remit- 
ting his sin." The second objection of Socinus 
to the Church doctrine of atonement was that 
substitution was impossible. An innocent per- 
son cannot endure penal suffering, cannot be 
punished, because sin is personal. Penalty is 
not like pecuniary debt. One person can pay 
a sum of money for another, because money is 
impersonal. But one being cannot satisfy jus- 
tice for another, because punishment is personal. 
Justice permits no vicariousness and no substi- 

1 Shedd, vol. ii. p. 377. 



ATONEMENT. 23 

tution, but requires that the very identical soul 
that has sinned should suffer. There is no way 
therefore to deliver the guilty from penalty but 
by an act of sovereign will. Justice is made by 
will, whenever the supreme sovereign pleases to 
do so. 

The third objection of Socinus to the doctrine 
of vicarious atonement was that even were vica- 
rious penalty allowable, Christ did not suffer it. 
The law threatens eternal death. Every indi- 
vidual transgressor owes an endless punishment 
to justice. It would be necessary that there 
should be as many substitutes as sinners, and 
that each one should suffer an endless penalty. 
Christ did not do this; his suffering was not, 
therefore, an equivalent for man's sin. 

The positive part of the soteriology of Socinus 
is found in the position that forgiveness is granted 
on the grounds of repentance and obedience. 
There are no legal obstacles in the way of pardon, 
because God is sovereign and supreme. 

11. Charming Unitarianism. — Dr. Channing, 
to whom American Unitarianism owes more 
than to any other man, believed in the unity of 
God, and the divine mission and work of Christ. 
Christ came as the world's Saviour. His mis- 



24 ATONEMENT. 

sion was to save man from sin, and his method 
of doing this was to sacrifice himself for the 
salvation of man. Channing says, in his sermon 
on "Love to Christ" : l "In the New Testament 
the crucifixion of Jesus is always set forth as 
the most illustrious portion of his history. The 
spirit of self-sacrifice, of deliberate self-immola- 
tion, of calm, patient endurance of the death of 
the cross, in the cause of truth, piety, virtue, hu- 
man happiness, — this particular manifestation 
of love is always urged upon in the New Testa- 
ment as the crowning glory of Jesus Christ." 
This revelation of Christ's love for man and 
sympathy with man, as seen in his suffering and 
death, presents us the philosophy of man's sal- 
vation by Christ. It is not alone by ethical 
teaching, by a pure example, but by God's love 
for man, and Christ's love for men as shown in 
his great suffering, that men are saved. It is 
the power of love to awaken and enkindle love 
that does it. There is no influence so potent to 
save men as that of love; and love for man is 
the great revelation made in the suffering and 
death of Christ. 

Dr. James Freeman Clarke says that " Unita- 

1 Ckanning's Works, vol. ix. p. 191. 



ATONEMENT.. 25 

rians are fully justified in holding that the New 
Testament nowhere asserts that the primary and 
immediate influence of the death of Christ is 
upon the divine attributes. In every instance 
Christ is said to reconcile us to God. It is we 
who were afar off that have been made right by 
the blood of Christ. It is we who, when we 
were enemies, were reconciled by the death of 
his Son." 1 

Unitarians generally hold what is called the 
moral theory of the atonement. In the judg- 
ment of nearly ail Unitarian divines it was de- 
signed to influence man, and not to move God. 
It was not as a satisfaction to divine justice that 
Christ suffered, but as a manifestation of divine 
love. It was not to pay the sinner's debt, but 
to move the sinner's heart, that Christ expired 
on the cross. He did not die to save man from 
punishment, but to save him from sin. 

12. Early Universalis™. — John Murray, the 
founder of the Universalist Church in America, 
though not the first teacher of Universalism on 
this continent, was, previous to his conversion to 
the larger faith and hope of the final salvation 
of all men, a Calvinistic Methodist. As a Cal- 

1 Orthodoxy : Its Truths and Errors, p. 262. 



26 ATONEMENT. 

vinist, he believed that all for whom Christ died 
would be saved ; as a Methodist, he believed that 
Christ died for all. 1 These two points of doc- 
trine taken together make Universalism. Put 
into a syllogism, the argument would stand thus: 
The major premise, All for whom Christ died 
will be saved ; the minor premise, Christ died 
for all ; Conclusion, Therefore all will be saved. 
The Universalism of John Murray grew out of 
his faith in the divinity of Christ, and his views 
of the nature, relations, and extent of the atone- 
ment. It is natural that a divine Saviour should 
be the author of universal salvation, for all God's 
relations to man are universal. Were Christ 
only a man, it would not be unreasonable or un- 
natural for him to fail in the work of salvation ; 
for partial failure is common to men, but God 
never fails. The divinity of the cause is proof 
of the certainty and universality of the effect. 

John Murray believed that the work of Christ 
was substitutional. He held that Christ suffered 
not only for man, but as man's substitute. As 
he suffered the penalty for all human sin, and 
paid the debt to divine justice contracted by the 
fallen human race, justice demands the salvation 

1 Murray's Sermons, vol. inV 



ATONEMENT. 27 

of all men. If this were not so, sin would be 
punished in man and also in his substitute, and 
the debt would be collected from both the sin- 
ner and his surety. Substitutional atonement 
provided for all men becomes the ground of 
universal salvation. 

Hosea Ballou, in his work on the Atonement, 
shows that sin is not infinite, that it does not 
involve infinite guilt, nor deserve infinite punish- 
ment ; that as a consequence punishment is not 
infinite and eternal. Sin, being limited and 
temporary, does not need an infinite atonement, 
does not demand a divine, infinite Mediator. 1 As 
a result of this reasoning, he reaches the conclu- 
sion that punishment is not and cannot be eter- 
nal, — which is the conclusion of Universalism, 
— and that Christ was not God,- — which is the 
conclusion of Unitarianism. 

Hosea Ballou was, therefore, in his theology 
and teaching a Unitarian Universalist. He did 
not believe that the atonement was the cause, 
but the effect, of God's love for man. Christ was 
the gift of the Father's love for suffering human- 
ity. He came and suffered to reveal God's love 
for us. His atonement was not to reconcile God 

1 Ballou on the Atonement, Part I. 



28 ATONEMENT. 

to man, but to reconcile man to God. "-God was 
in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." 
Men are pardoned, not because of the suffering 
of Christ, but because they repent, believe, and 
reform; they would not do this, however, with- 
out the revelation of God's love in Christ. This 
is the motive to repentance and piety. 

Dr. Thomas B. Thayer holds that the atone- 
ment of Christ is the divinely appointed means 
of reconciling man to God. 1 It does this by 
convincing man of God's love for him. "All 
things are of God, who reconciled us to himself 
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the min- 
istry of reconciliation." " We love him because 
he first loved us." 

II. — Scriptural Statements of Atonement 
and the Suffering of Christ. 

" Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried 
our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, 
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was 
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised 
for our iniquities: the chastisement of our 
peace was upon him; and with his stripes we 
are healed. The Lord hath laid on him the 

1 Theology of Universalism, p. 125. 



ATONEMENT. 29 

iniquity of us all. It pleased the Lord to 
bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when 
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, 
he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, 
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in 
his hands." "The Son of man came to give 
his life a ransom for many." "But we see 
Jesus, who was made a little 4 lower than the 
angels, for the suffering of death." "Whom 
God has set forth to be a propitiation through 
faith in his blood." "For when we were yet 
without strength, in due time Christ died for 
the ungodly. " " Christ died for our sins accord- 
ing to the Scriptures." "I lay down rny life 
for the sheep. " " Christ has redeemed us from 
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. " 
" Who his own self bare our sins in his own body 
on the tree. " " For Christ hath once suffered for 
sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring 
us to God." "Who gave himself for us." 
" Who gave himself for our sins." " Who gave 
himself a ransom for all. " " By whose stripes 
ye were healed. " 

The inspired writers in these passages clearly 
teach the fact of the atonement. They, how- 
ever, present no theory or philosophy of the 



30 ATONEMENT. 

atonement; they recognize the suffering of 
Christ as necessary to man's salvation; they 
teach that he suffered for us, for our benefit, 
for our salvation. He died for us, gave him- 
self for us, gave his life for us. This language 
proves that Christ came not only to teach men, 
but to suffer for them. By his suffering he has 
ransomed, redeemed, and saved us. 

The great fact that Christ suffered is clearly 
stated by all his historians. It has never been 
denied or even questioned by any respectable 
authority in religious history. 

He did not suffer for himself or for his own 
sins, for he was sinless. He was pure, unde- 
filed, and separate from sinners. Then why 
did he suffer? Was there no reason for his 
suffering? Did he suffer without reason and 
for no purpose? How could such a man, of 
such a life and character, suffer as he did, 
under the government of an all-powerful, all- 
wise, and all-benevolent God, for no reason and 
for no wise purpose? Is there no rational ex- 
planation of this strange moral phenomenon? 
Not unless the Biblical account is true. If he 
suffered for man, for his benefit, for his salva- 



ATONEMENT. 31 

tion, and as his Saviour, then the phenomenon 
is explained, the moral problem is solved; the 
facts are rationally accounted for, — such a life 
was worthy of the Son of God, and of the divine 
Father who sent him. It is in harmony with 
his divine origin, his benevolent nature, his 
sinless life, and his exalted character. He 
suffered as part of a divine plan, to carry out a 
divine purpose, to fulfil divine prophecy, to re- 
veal the Father's love, and to save the human 
race from sin. This is the mission on which 
he came; this is the work for which he was 
sent into the world. " He came not to call the 
righteous but sinners to repentance." He is 
" the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of 
the world. " He who " knew no sin was made a 
sin offering for us, that we might be made the 
righteousness of God in him. " It was like the 
Father to send him on such a mission of love. 
It was like the Son to come ; and the sublime 
act of benevolence fits into the moral and spir- 
itual universe of which it is a part, restoring 
its lost harmony and establishing universal 
peace. 



32 ATONEMENT. 

III. — Universal Sacrifice and the Law of 

VlCARIOUSNESS. 

The study of Comparative Theology shows 
there are certain elements common to nearly 
all religions. These are faith in God's ex- 
istence and man's relations to him; man's 
responsibility to God growing out of these re- 
lations ; a law of duty which is the measure of 
man's responsibility; the consciousness of sin, 
guilt, and remorse, as resulting from the viola- 
tion of this law; and the hope for pardon and 
salvation through suffering and sacrifice. These 
common and abiding religious elements we 
find everywhere. 1 They are primary principles 
in all theologies, and vital and practical ele- 
ments in all religions. Does not the existence 
of these universal elements common to all re- 
ligions prove that the law of atonement is a fact 
in the moral government of God, recognized by 
the moral nature of man? Do they not show 
that the moral and religious intuitions of man 
demand atonement as the condition of recon- 
ciliation and forgiveness? They teach that 
while atonement is not necessary to move God, 

1 Manual of the Science of Religion, pp. 142-147. 



ATONEMENT. 33 

it is necessary to convince man of God's will- 
ingness to be reconciled to man as a sinner. 
Man has this singular instinct : he demands an 
earnest of the intentions of God. 

All the other elements common to nearly all 
religions and found in man's religious hfstory 
and development, are regarded as true; why 
should we not so regard the common offering 
of religious sacrifices? Do they not reveal a 
great want of man's nature, and come under a 
great law of man's religious being? Have the 
bleeding victims, the slain animals, the smok- 
ing altars, and the costly oblations which we 
find in nearly all religions no meaning? Is 
there not in human nature some moral cause 
for these phenomena? Have these facts in man's 
religious life and history no reference to his 
sin and salvation? The general consensus of 
theological and religious thought interprets these 
phenomena as the manifestation of man's con- 
sciousness of sin, fear of punishment, faith in 
salvation, and hope for reconciliation through 
atonement. 

It has not been questioned by any standard 
authority in Comparative Theology that such 
is, or may be in part at least, the meaning of 

3 



34 ATONEMENT. 

sacrificial offerings so common to the many 
different systems of religion in the world. 
This view is confirmed by the readiness with 
which the devotees of such religions embrace 
Christianity. It comes to them as a system 
that completes and makes perfect their hope of 
salvation through sacrifice. 

There is in the atonement that which adjusts 
it to man's religious nature and history. It 
supplies his wants, and meets his spiritual 
necessities. It does not set aside the old re- 
ligious faith and order of the world so much as 
it transcends them. Its mission is not to de- 
stroy, but to make perfect. 

" Vicarious 1 sacrifice is the law of being. It 
is a mysterious and fearful thing to observe 
how God's universe is built upon this law, — 
how it permeates and pervades all Nature, so 
that if it were to cease Nature would cease to 
exist. " It conditions the existence and devel- 
opment of all life, mind, and character. The 
existence of the individual, the family, society, 
and the race is the result of its action. Civili- 

1 The author uses the term " vicarious " in the sense of suf- 
fering for another and for his benefit, — not in the place of, 
or instead of, the other. 



ATONEMENT. 35 

zation, the Church, and the State are ours be- 
cause of its operation. 

The rocks must crumble and be converted 
into soil, that plants may live, grow, and bear 
fruit. Plants must die, that animals and men 
may have life and enjoyment. Animals suffer 
and die for each other and for the benefit of 
man. Men everywhere suffer to help and bless 
their fellow-men. The father suffers for his 
family, and the mother suffers for her children. 
The patriot dies for his country, and the Chris- 
tian martyr for the truth and the Church. We 
live under a republican form of government and 
enjoy civil and religious liberty because our 
Revolutionary fathers suffered and died in battle 
and in camp. 

Christ, the Son of God and the Son of man, 
suffered for us under this great law of God's 
moral and spiritual providence. The death of 
Christ for man's salvation is the highest appli- 
cation of this law known to the moral universe, 
This event in its principle is not exceptional, 
but universal. It is a part of a divine plan 
upon which human society was organized. It 
is operative everywhere in domestic, social, and 
religious life. It gives play to man's sym- 



36 ATONEMENT. 

pathies, and provides for the exercise of his 
benevolence. It is not only the law of human- 
ity, but of divinity as well. It embraces in its 
sublime sweep the finite and the infinite, man 
and God, earth and heaven, time and eternity. 
It is the law of divine action in creation, provi- 
dence, and grace. God is all the time planning 
and working for others, and not for himself. 
The whole material universe is used in the ser- 
vice of man. Nature is a divine instrument of 
human service. God is all the time giving to 
his children. He gives them food and raiment, 
home and friends, health and happiness, joy 
and peace, faith and hope, love and loved ones. 
For our salvation he has given his Son, his 
Spirit, and himself to us. 

The atonement is the revelation of God's 
self-sacrificing love. God is an emotional 
being. He has an emotional nature, and re- 
veals himself as in the exercise of the emotions 
of justice, benevolence, love, pity, compassion, 
forgiveness, and sympathy. These terms mean 
the same when applied to God as when applied 
to man. Man was made in the image and like- 
ness of God's intellectual, moral, and spiritual 
nature. It is for this reason that we can under- 



ATONEMENT, 37 

stand God's thoughts and feelings as he reveals 
himself in Nature, the Bible, and Christ. We 
interpret all things in the light of our own con- 
scious being, life, and experience ; and by this 
interpretation we see God giving the strongest 
proof of his love for us which it is possible for 
even God to give. 

The power to suffer voluntarily for the benefit 
of others reveals the possession of a great 
nature. It shows great moral and spiritual 
sensibility. It manifests large benevolence 
and great sympathy. It indicates a generous 
and noble spirit, and great strength of moral 
character. The really great men and women 
of history have all possessed this power in a 
marked degree. Its possession gives to the 
human soul great influence with men. It is 
moral power as distinguished from physical 
force. The possession of this power as no 
other man ever possessed it is the supreme 
glory of the character and life of Christ. It 
is also one of God's infinite perfections. It is 
this that gives him moral omnipotence. It is 
only in its exercise that he can give the strong- 
est proof of his love for man. This he did 
when he gave his only begotten Son to suffer 



38 ATONEMENT. 

and die for the world's salvation. It is the 
infinite love of God thus revealed that touches 
the great heart of humanity, awakens its moral 
life, and kindles its moral enthusiasm into a 
glow. 

IV. — The Atonement and Law. 

The atonement of Christ is not in conflict 
with the moral law, or the moral order of 
society. They both had their origin in the 
same divine mind. The unity of the divine 
nature and character is proof of the harmony 
between law and atonement. They are divine 
moral effects of the same divine moral cause, 
and cannot be in conflict. They must be in 
agreement; otherwise there is no unity in the 
divine nature and no harmony in the divine 
government. 

Christ recognizes the divine origin and au- 
thority of the law while engaged in the great 
work of making atonement. He states the 
supreme principle of the law as love, and shows 
that the atonement had its origin in, and em- 
bodies the same principle. " God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 



ATONEMENT. 39 

but have everlasting life. " We are also taught 
that the influence of atonement as a revelation 
of the love of God for man secures obedience to 
the law of love. " We love him because he 
first loved us." The law and the atonement 
are both provisions of divine love to save man 
from sin. 

The life of Christ is one of perfect obedience 
to the law. It is a living commentary upon its 
principles and precepts. The requirements of 
the law are illustrated and enforced by his ex- 
ample. Its spirit is embodied and takes form 
in his conduct and character. We see in his 
social life the practical evidence of the wonder- 
ful adjustment of the law to man's social rela- 
tions, and of its perfect adaptation to his nature 
and wants. In his teaching he gives us not 
only theory but practice, not only precept but 
example. He not only tells us what the law 
requires us to do, but shows us how to do it. 

The atonement shows us that God submits to 
and obeys the same law of love which he has 
given to us, — that it is the law for divinity as 
well as humanity, — the law of God as well 
as the law of man, and controls divine as well 
as human action. This fact reveals, as no other 



40 ATONEMENT. 

fact ever did, the divinity, supremacy, and 
authority of the law. It shows its permanency 
and universality. It is the law of God and 
man, heaven and earth, time and eternity; 
the law for all worlds, and of all rational, 
moral, and spiritual beings. It is always, 
everywhere, and on all rational natures bind- 
ing. The atonement sustains the law by plac- 
ing before man the strongest possible motives 
to obey it; all moral action is conditioned by 
motives. There can be no rational, responsible 
action without motives. To act without regard 
to motives is to act irrationally. A man with- 
out motives is a man without a moral nature, 
and incapable of moral action. Motives influ- 
ence our conduct by appealing to the affections, 
emotions, and sensibilities of our rational, 
moral, and religious natures. The strongest 
motives are those which appeal to conscience, 
love, and hope; and the atonement makes its 
appeal to all these, as no other fact in all human 
history ever did. 

In the advent, life, suffering, death, and 
resurrection of Christ for man's salvation, the 
divine goodness appeals to man's gratitude, the 
divine purity to man's conscience, the divine 



ATONEMENT. 41 

love to man's heart, the divine faithfulness to 
man's confidence and trust, the divine promises 
to man's hope, and the divine nature and char- 
acter to man's adoration and worship. Was 
there ever stronger motive presented to man to 
secure his obedience to law? Was there ever 
stronger appeal made to man's whole moral and 
religious nature, to bring him into harmony 
with right, and unto union with God, than is 
made in the atonement? 

V. — The Atonement and Punishment. 

In the philosophy and theology of Universal- 
ism the function of punishment is disciplinary 
and reformatory. Its work is to teach and 
reform; its design is to educate and save. 
Men are punished for their own good, and not 
alone for the good of society. As a part of the 
moral government of God, it had its origin in 
love. Its function is benevolent ; its object is 
to make men better. This being so, the design 
of the atonement was not to prevent punish- 
ment. To do that is to injure, and not to help 
man. If punishment is designed and adapted 
to reform men. to prevent it by the atonement 
is to prevent their reformation. 



42 ATONEMENT. 

The purpose of the atonement is not to save 
man from punishment, but to save him from 
sin. It saves from punishment only to the 
extent of and by saving from sin. The atone- 
ment and punishment are not opposed the one 
to the other, but they are both opposed to sin. 
They are both designed to prevent sin, and to 
save men from it. Punishment and atonement 
are both designed to maintain and not to dis- 
turb the moral order of the universe. They do 
not abrogate, but enforce and uphold law. 
Punishment and atonement are not ends of 
government ; they are only the means employed 
by government for the attainment of high and 
noble ends. 

From these views it follows that Christ, in 
making atonement, did not suffer man's punish- 
ment. He suffered for man and for his bene- 
fit; but he did not suffer man's punishment, nor 
to save man from just punishment. All pun- 
ishment is suffering, but all suffering is not 
punishment. To make suffering punishment 
there must be in it a moral element; it must 
be attended by the moral consciousness that it 
is deserved. Christ's suffering for man was at- 
tended by no such moral consciousness ; there- 



ATONEMENT. 43 

fore it was not, and could not be punishment. 
It was suffering voluntarily endured for man's 
benefit, but it was in no sense his punishment. 

Moral character and moral action are purely 
personal, and therefore cannot be transferred. 
Christ did not suffer man's punishment, because 
he was not guilty of man's sin. He had not 
violated the law, nor incurred the penalty; 
consequently he could not suffer the punishment 
due man's sin. The sin of man cannot be 
transferred to, nor his punishment inflicted on, 
Christ. Man's moral responsibility and moral 
obligation cannot be assumed by another; 
morals recognize no substitution. The person 
that sins incurs the penalty, and must suffer 
the punishment. Christ suffered on account of 
sin and for sin, but he was not punished as a 
sinner. The penalty of sin is the consciousness 
of guilt, a feeling of moral condemnation, a 
sense of shame, and remorse of conscience. The 
innocent and sinless Son of God could not pos- 
sibly suffer such a penalty. He could not by 
any power in earth or heaven be made to have 
such a moral experience. Such a psychologi- 
cal condition would be impossible to his nature 
and character. It is therefore evident that the 



44 ATONEMENT. 

suffering endured by Christ was not the punish- 
ment of man's sin. It was not the penalty of 
violated law which man had incurred, nor the 
suffering which man's outraged moral nature 
inflicts upon the sinner. 

Punishment prepares the way for Christ and 
his salvation. It does this by making man un- 
derstand his true condition as a sinner. It 
shows him how fearful an evil sin is. It re- 
veals its power, pollution, slavery, degradation, 
shame, and remorse. It is the hungry man 
that will seek for food. The thirsty man will 
cry for water, the diseased man will go to the 
physician; and the soul, conscious of pain, 
shame, remorse, and hell that sin causes, will 
seek Christ and his great salvation. To all 
such Christ, with his great atonement, stands 
ready to forgive and save. The desire of the 
truly penitent spirit is to be saved from sin and 
not penalty. 

VI. — The Atonement of Divine Origin. 

The atonement is of divine origin. It is a 
divine arrangement for the salvation of man, — 
a form of divine activity in love and mercy. It 
was a part of God's gracious purpose towards 



ATONEMENT. 45 

man from the foundation of the world. It was 
provided for in the divine plan of moral gov- 
ernment before man was created. It was not 
an afterthought to which God was prompted by 
the origin of sin. It was not hurriedly pro- 
vided to meet the moral crises which sin had 
caused in God's moral universe. Man's sin 
was foreseen, and his salvation provided for in 
the divine plan before the sons of God sang 
their anthem of praise at the dawn of creation. 

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spir- 
itual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 
according as he hath chosen us in him before 
the foundation of the world, that we should be 
holy and without blame before him in love; 
having predestinated us unto the adoption of 
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according 
to the good pleasure of his will ; to the praise 
of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made 
us accepted in the beloved: in whom we have 
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness 
of sins, according to the riches of his grace. " 1 

The Apostle teaches us in this sublime pas- 
sage from the Epistle to the Ephesians that God 

1 Ephesians i. 3-7. 



46 ATONEMENT. 

purposed to save man from sin through the 
atonement of Christ from before the foundation 
of the world. This divine purpose originated 
in God's infinite love. Creation and salvation 
in the divine mind do not form two purposes, 
but one purpose. God's purpose of salvation did 
not grow out of man's creation and fall into 
sin; but he created man that he might save 
him. The divine purpose to create is grounded 
in the divine purpose to save, or rather it is a 
part of it. God is one; his nature is a unit- 
He could form no purpose to exercise his natu- 
ral attributes in creation that would conflict 
with his moral nature. God is a being of infi- 
nite holiness, justice, and benevolence ; foresee- 
ing, before man was created, that in the event of 
his creation he would certainly sin, God could 
not purpose to create man unless he also pur- 
posed to save him. To have done so would 
have been contrary to his moral perfections and 
moral character. This the divine unity made 
impossible. In the nature and order of crea- 
tion, as regards value and importance, the moral 
takes precedence of the natural. It is in har- 
mony with this law of the moral universe that 
God should purpose to save man before he pur- 
posed to create him. 



ATONEMENT. 47 

In nature the material exists for the spir- 
itual, the animal for the rational, and the natu- 
ral for the moral. Creation is a condition and 
means of salvation; it is a preparation for it. 
Its moral importance grows out of this fact. 
This gives to matter and life a moral function. 
The physical universe has moral relations; the 
operations of Nature look to moral ends. There 
is a law of moral unity in the universe that 
binds together all forces and all events. All 
previous civilization was but a preparation for 
the advent of Christ as the Saviour of the world. 
It is this event that gives unity to all history. 
This world becomes the theatre for the unfold- 
ing of God's great purpose of salvation through 
atonement. The method of this unfolding has 
been gradual and progressive, the causes of it 
have been divine and human action, and all 
human history is the record of the results. By 
this process institutions have been builded, 
governments established, laws enacted, arts 
created, and reforms inaugurated. Christian 
civilization is its product, the Christian Church 
the divinely constituted agent, and the gospel 
of Christ the great moral and spiritual instru- 
ment. Christ was sent by God into the world 



48 ATONEMENT. 

on a mission of salvation. "He came to 
seek and to save the lost." "He was sent 
unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 
"The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour 
of the world." "He came not into the world 
to condemn the world, but that the world 
through him might be saved." These texts 
show that Christ is the Saviour by divine ap- 
pointment; this was his divine mission into 
the world. 

" For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but 
to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep 
we should live together with him. " " But we 
see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the 
angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with 
glory and honor, that he by the grace of God 
should taste death for every man." "Being 
justified freely by his grace through the re- 
demption that is in Christ Jesus. " 

God has appointed us to obtain salvation by 
Christ. The atonement is then a matter of 
divine appointment. Jesus Christ tasted death 
for every man by the grace of God. It was an 
arrangement of special divine favor to man. 
Christ " gave himself for our sins, that he might 



ATONEMENT. 49 

deliver us from this present evil world, accord- 
ing to the will of God and our Father. " 2 

The atonement of Christ for man's sin is 
here stated to be according to the will of God. 
The Father sent his Son on this mission of suf- 
fering love for man's salvation. 

" Herein is love, not that we loved God, but 
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the pro- 
pitiation for our sins. " 2 " Whom God hath set 
forth to be a propitiation in his blood through 
faith. " 3 Christ was set forth by God for this 
very work of making atonement for sin through 
faith in his blood. 

The one great fact in the life of Christ in 
which we find the atonement is his suffering; 
he suffered for us. He suffered for our sin, 
though he did not suffer its penalty and punish- 
ment ; he suffered to save us from sin, to recon- 
cile us to God. His suffering is the means of 
! our salvation. 

VII. — The Nature of the Atonement. 

The suffering of Christ in the agony of the 
garden was not the direct infliction of divine 
wrath upon the soul of Jesus as the substitute 

1 Galatians i. 4. 2 1 John iv. 10. 3 Romans iii. 25. 

4 



50 ATONEMENT. 

for sinful men. The difficulties in the way of 
this theory are insuperable. There was never 
a moment in which the holy Son of God en- 
dured the wrath of the divine Father. It is a 
fearful thing to give place for a moment to this 
sad misapprehension or misrepresentation of 
the Gospel. Could the obedient Son of God 
incur the anger of his Father while executing 
the Father's will? Can God punish his own 
Son for doing that which he commanded him to 
do? Can God bless and curse the same being 
in the same instant for doing one and the 
same act? Surely these things cannot be. The 
justice and benevolence of God, and the charac- 
ter and work of Christ make such a theory im- 
possible to rational thought. God never felt 
for Christ any other emotion than love. Nor 
was this agony caused by the indirect maledic- 
tion of God, who by withdrawing himself from 
his Son left him to bear the curse that was due 
the sinful race. No; God did not actively or 
constructively visit his wrath upon the soul of 
Jesus. The cause, whatever it was, lay outside 
of the divine agency, and was a force as hostile 
to the will of the Father as it was repugnant to 
the pure and sensitive soul of Jesus. 



ATONEMENT. t 51 

1. Not Penalty. — In the agony of the garden 
and the cross Christ did not bear all the pen- 
alty of all the sins of all men for all the ages, 
combined and compressed into the experience 
of an hour. If this theory were true, there 
would be no saving of suffering to the moral 
and spiritual universe by the atonement of 
Christ. There would be the same amount of 
suffering; it would only be transferred from 
the guilty to the innocent. How such an act 
of the divine administration could reveal the 
infinite love, justice, and mercy of God we 
cannot see. 

2. Not the Payment of a Debt. — Nor was the 
death of Jesus the payment of a debt to divine 
justice, in order that God might be just, and 
at the same time justify those who believe. 
The atonement viewed in this way compels us 
to do violence to our reason, or accept of one 
or two inevitable consequences. If the debt 
incurred by the accumulated sins of men is 
paid, then the divine justice cannot enforce the 
penalty of the violated law upon the sinner who 
has release from the penalty written in the 
blood of the Son of God. If the divine justice 
still exacts from the sinner the penalty of vio- 



52 ATONEMENT. 

lated law, then this penalty will be twice paid, — 
once by the guilty sinner and once by the inno- 
cent Christ. This double infliction of penalty 
is at variance with all principles of justice, 
human or divine. We never regard it as just, 
or excuse it in practical life. On the other 
hand, the absolute payment of the debt of sin 
by Jesus Christ releases every soul of man from 
all liability of punishment either for past, 
present, or future sin ; for the whole burden of 
human guilt has been borne by Christ, and the 
awful account has been finally and fully settled. 
This being so, all punishment inflicted on any 
human being for sin is now unjust. 

3. Not Substitutional^. — The doctrine of 
atonement by substitution labors under every 
difficulty that attends the one already examined. 
The substitute being accepted, the principal is 
released by all terms of justice, right, and rea- 
son. But this theory does not stop at this 
point. If man deserved eternal death, as the 
advocates of this theory hold, it is impossible 
to see how this penalty can be modified by en- 
forcing it upon the person of the substitute. 
Although the soul of Christ was of infinite value 
and of infinite merit, it was still a human soul, 



ATONEMENT. 53 

and in the office of substitute for a sinner 
doomed to eternal death, must suffer the pen- 
alty, or else atonement does not meet the 
claims of justice. To modify the penalty and 
shorten the duration of it is to change the law, 
and thus impugn the divine government in the 
very sphere in which we profess to justify it. 
The union of the divine and human natures in 
Christ does not remove the difficulty. It was 
the humanity which made the atonement, as 
the advocates of substitution claim. We must 
abandon the doctrine of eternal penalty or give 
up the theory of atonement by substitution. 

4. How and why Christ Suffers. — Christ suf- 
fered for sin and from sin because, as the 
saviour of men, he came into conflict with it. 
We can only forgive the sin from which we suf- 
fer. A sin that has never touched us in any 
way we cannot forgive. We must have a knowl- 
edge that the sin we would forgive has harmed 
us; we must have felt the wrong it was to us, 
and have suffered from its evil and its sting 
before we forgive it, or try to save men from it. 
We never try to save men from evils or sins to 
which we are indifferent, — that have never 
touched us painfully, — of the wrong and evil 



54 ATONEMENT. 

of which we were never conscious, and never 
had an experience. Our forgiveness of sins in 
others, and their salvation from sin through 
our efforts, originates in our suffering from 
them. Until we have this consciousness and 
experience, we do not know them as sins against 
us which we can forgive, and from which we 
can and should try to save them. All forgive - 
ness and salvation, then, come of, and come 
through, suffering. This is a necessity of our 
intellectual and moral nature, and it is as true 
of the nature of Christ as it is of ours. It is as 
true of the divine as of the human nature, of the 
nature of God as of the nature of man. Neither 
God nor man would or could, from the laws of 
mental and moral action common to both, save 
man from sin if they did not know or feel sin 
as evil. Without this consciousness of the evil 
of sin, there would be no motive to save man 
from it. All moral beings, whether divine or 
human, act from motives. Love, sympathy, 
compassion, pity, and benevolence — the motives 
which move God and men to forgive and save — 
become active only when the evil and the wrong 
of sin are known and felt. Christ became the 
saviour of men when the guilt, remorse, degra- 



ATONEMENT. 55 

dation, shame, and pain of sin became so real 
to him as to shock and appall his sensitive 
moral and spiritual nature. The suffering for 
sin is therefore inseparable from the work 
necessary to man's salvation. 

Christ suffered for us, and we are blessed 
and saved through his suffering, because of the 
oneness of humanity. Human nature is a unit. 
The human family is social and organic ; it is 
one and many. The bond of union is moral 
and vital. There is a common law, and a com- 
mon life. We are united in the possession of 
a common nature, instincts, sympathies, affec- 
tions, needs, wants, joys, and sorrows. There 
are domestic, family, social, and business ties 
that bind us together; a unity of nature, of 
thought, of interest, and of life that make us 
one. Christ was born of, was born into, and is 
a part of our humanity. He is vitally, socially, 
and morally a part of our human nature ; is a 
member of human society, and a personal char- 
acter in history. As such he is one with us 
and one of us. His life touches ours as intel- 
lectual, moral, social, and religious beings. 
He acts upon us through our intellects, con- 
science, affections, and sympathies. He is in 



56 ATONEMENT. 

sympathy with us ; he shares our joys and sor- 
rows, pleasures and pains; he is touched with 
a feeling of our infirmities. He is the spiritual 
vine; we are the branches. We are vitally con- 
nected with him ; we are members of his spir- 
itual body, having his spiritual nature and 
sharing his spiritual life. He is united to us, 
dwells in us, and rules over us. Our life is hid 
with Christ in God. "The life we now live in 
the flesh we live by the faith of the Son of 
God." 

5. The Atonement and Justice. — In manv 
theories of atonement the common and promi- 
nent element is justice. This is especially so 
in the theories advocated by the churches which 
claim to be orthodox. In each one of these 
three theories there is one common element. 
" This element is that the necessity of the death 
of Christ lay in the divine attribute of justice. 
According to the first theory, Christ died to 
satisfy what was due by God to the devil ; ac- 
cording to the second, he died to satisfy what 
was due by God to himself; according to the 
third, he died to satisfy what was due by God 
to the moral universe. 

"Divine justice in the first theory owed a 



ATONEMENT. 57 

ransom to the devil, which Christ paid ; in the 
second it owed a debt to the divine honor, which 
Christ paid ; in the third it owed protection to 
the universe from the danger of evil example. 
The difficulty to be removed before God can for- 
give sin lay, according to all these theories, in 
the divine justice. Christ died to reconcile 
justice and mercy, so as to make justice mer- 
ciful, and mercy just. " 1 These theories all 
destroy the unity of the divine nature and gov- 
ernment. They array one divine attribute 
against another. Mercy is in conflict with jus- 
tice, and justice is at war with mercy. This 
causes a schism in the divine being. 

God is one. His nature, being, and attri- 
butes are a unit; he is one being, one life, 
and one character. There is no war between 
the divine attributes, and no schism in the di- 
vine nature. In the divine nature and in the 
divine government justice and mercy are not 
in conflict, but in agreement. In their practi- 
cal revelation and relation to man they are but 
the two forms in which God's infinite love be- 
comes operative and manifests itself. Justice, 

1 Orthodoxy: Its Truths and Errors. By James Freeman 
Clarke, p. 261. 



58 ATONEMENT. 

as revealed in law, penalty, and punishment, 
forbids sin, would prevent sin and reform sin- 
ners. Mercy, as operative in the atonement, 
would prevent sin, and save man from sin, but 
not from punishment. They are in different 
ways doing the same work, and aiming at the 
same result, — that is, the salvation of man from 
sin. The practical function of both justice and 
mercy, as forms of active, divine benevolence, 
is to secure man's highest moral and spiritual 
well-being by saving him from sin, and saving 
him from punishment by saving him from sin, 
and because it does so. These two attributes 
in the divine nature and these two forces in the 
divine government are a moral unit. They 
work together for man's salvation ; and the re- 
sult is the end of sin in the moral universe of 
God. 

The atonement is the revelation to man of 
the love of God. God's love for man is not the 
effect, but the cause of the atonement. Christ 
came and suffered for us, not to cause God to 
love us, but because he does love us. He was 
the gift of the Father's love for the world's sal- 
vation. The atonement is the way in which 
God's love for man manifests itself. It is the 



ATONEMENT. 59 

medium of divine revelation, the expression of 
the infinite love of God for man, when over- 
shadowed by his great sin and deep sorrow. It 
is the evidence by which every human soul 
should be convinced of God's love. " God com- 
mendeth his love toward us in that while we 
were yet sinners Christ died for us." * 

" In this was manifested the love of God to- 
ward us, because that God sent his only begotten 
Son into the world, that we might live through 
him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, 
but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the 
propitiation for our sins. " 2 " For God so loved 
the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth on him might not per- 
ish, but have everlasting life. " 3 The love of 
God for man finds therefore its full revelation in 
the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

The strongest proof that God or man can give 
of divine or human love is willingness to suffer 
for the persons loved. The atonement reveals 
the Father and Son in self-sacrifice. For man's 
salvation the Father gives his only begotten Son 
to suffer and die, and the Son gives his own 
life. Was it possible for God or man to give 

1 Romans v. 8. 2 1 John iv. 9, 10. 3 John iii. 16. 



60 ATONEMENT. 

a more convincing proof of love for suffering 
humanity? 

The atonement stands out in the world's his- 
tory as the most transcendent manifestation of 
love ever made by God to men or angels. 

6. The Atonement is Reconciliation. — The 
design of the atonement was not to reconcile 
God to man, but to reconcile man to God. 
The infinite Father, whose nature is love, has 
always been ready to be reconciled to man. His 
love for man has ever caused him to desire his 
salvation; and in the exercise of this great 
love for men he sends Christ into the world on 
a mission of reconciliation. On this subject 
the Apostle Paul writes to the Church at Cor- 
inth: "And all things are of God, who hath 
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and 
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation: 
to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the 
world unto himself, not imputing their tres- 
passes unto them, and hath committed unto us 
the word of reconciliation. Now then we are 
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did be- 
seech you by us : we pray you in Christ's stead, 
be ye reconciled to God. " l And again he says : 

1 2 Corinthians v. 18-20. 



ATONEMENT. 61 

"For if, when we were enemies, we were rec- 
onciled to God by the death of his Son, much 
more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by 
his life. " a Justification, as well as reconcilia- 
tion, of which it is a part, comes to us through 
the mediation and atonement of Christ. " There- 
fore, being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. " 2 

"For it pleased the Father that in him 
should all fulness dwell ; and having made peace 
through the blood of his cross, by him to recon- 
cile all things unto himself; by him, I say, 
whether they be things in earth or things in 
heaven." 3 The atonement as a revelation of 
divine love overcomes human hate, and recon- 
ciles man to God. It is the goodness of God 
that leadeth man to repentance. "We love 
God because he first loved us." 4 

The love of God for man as revealed in the 
gift of his Son for the salvation of the race, 
makes a powerful appeal to the human heart, 
and becomes a great controlling motive to re- 
pentance and reformation. Goodness, by a law 
of man's spiritual being, awakens gratitude and 

1 Romans v. 10. 8 Colossians i. 19, 20. 

2 Ibid. 1. 4 1 John iv. 19. 



62 ATONEMENT. 

love ; by a law of the moral sentiments it en- 
kindles love. These two laws that control the 
action of the moral and religious emotions give 
to the love of God as revealed in the suffering 
of Christ for man's salvation a powerful influ- 
ence on human thought and feelings, life and 
character. 

But the atonement not only reconciles man 
to God, but it also reconciles man to his 
brother-man. "If a man says I love God, and 
hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that 
loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how 
can he love God whom he hath not seen? And 
this commandment have we from him, that he 
who loveth God, love his brother also." 1 

Sin, which has its root in selfishness, has 
separated men from God and from each other. 
The love of God as revealed in the atonement 
of Christ overcomes human selfishness and de- 
stroys human sin. The higher love must carry 
with it the lower, so we cannot love the divine 
Father without loving our human brother. 

" In Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far 
off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. " 2 
The moral distance between God and man and 

1 1 John iv, 20, 21. 2 Ephesians ii. 13. 



ATONEMENT. 63 

between man and his fellow-men is shortened 
by the atonement, which is a manifestation of 
God's love for all men. This shows how near 
God is to man in his love and sympathy, which 
naturally causes man to feel nearer and to come 
nearer to God. Nearness to God is a moral 
and not a physical condition, and depends not 
upon where he is so much as upon what he is. 
It results not from change of place, but from 
change of character. 

" And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, " says 
Christ, " will draw all men unto me. " * He 
thus becomes the moral magnet of the universe, 
drawing all souls to himself, by the spiritual 
magnetism of his love. In Christ the law of 
moral gravitation that binds man to God and 
to his fellow-men is re-established, and the lost 
harmony of the spiritual universe is restored. 
Infinite love becomes supreme, and it kindles 
all hearts into a glow. 

" Having made known the mystery of his will 
according to his good pleasure, which he has 
purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of 
the fulness of times he might gather together in 
one all things in Christ. " 2 

1 John xii. 32. 2 Ephesians i. 9, 10. 



64 ATONEMENT. 

It is the purpose of God in Christ to restore 
the lost unity and harmony of the moral uni- 
verse by the destruction of sin, the cause of all 
discord. When the love of God fills all hearts, 
controls all wills, and governs all conduct, self- 
ishness will die, and there will be no more sin. 

VIII. — The Atonement and the Universe. 

The unity of nature is proof of the unity of 
God. The unity of God demands a law of 
moral unity in all creation. The oneness of 
the cause proves unity in the effect. The 
creator of the universe being one, there must 
be a law of moral unity running through the 
creation. The supreme law of divine action is 
moral. It is all-embracing, all-controlling, 
all-pervading. In all God does there is a 
moral purpose and a moral end. The physical 
universe has moral and spiritual functions. It 
sustains moral relations, and takes its place in 
the evolution of a great moral purpose. It is 
one in the chain of causes and influences that 
bind God and man together. It is the local 
habitation of man, — a moral being with a 
moral nature, endowed with moral faculties, 
sustaining moral relations, conscious of moral 



ATONEMENT. 65 

responsibility, under moral obligation, and in 
subjection to moral government. The material 
universe is the home of a race of moral beings. 
Its forces are builded and organized into moral 
persons in union with spirits born of God. It 
furnishes the physical conditions of moral life, 
moral action, moral culture, moral character, 
and moral history. It exists in space for moral 
ends. Within its limits the family is organ- 
ized, the home is builded, children are born, 
society has its origin, moral life is developed ; 
love, benevolence, and charity live; science, 
philosophy, religion, and civilization are born. 
Minds are educated, schools and churches are 
builded, the gospel is preached, the Bible is 
written and published, Christianity is estab- 
lished, and souls are saved. 

All these facts show the moral importance of 
the material universe, and connect it directly 
with the atonement of Christ, the greatest event 
in moral history. These facts are explained 
when it is learned, from God's revelation to man, 
that the universe was created for this purpose. 
It had its origin in, and its creation is, a part 
of God's great purpose of salvation through 
atonement. The final cause and moral reason 

5 



66 ATONEMENT. 

for the existence of the universe are to be found 
in the fact that it was necessary to the moral 
development and salvation of man, To this 
end is the mediatorial work of the Son of God 
in destroying sin, saving man, and establishing 
a moral empire of holiness, benevolence, truth, 
justice, and happiness. 

On this subject John says ; " In the beginning 
was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
and the Word was God. The same was in the 
beginning with God. All things were made by 
him, and without him was not anything made 
that was made. " l " The Word was made flesh, 
and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, 
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, 
full of grace and truth.'' 2 

Without entering into the controversy as to 
who the Word was, it is evident it was some 
divine wisdom, spirit, or wisdom and spirit made 
flesh. It took human form and became incar- 
nated in the person, life, and character of Jesus 
Christ. This identifies the author of atonement 
with the creator and the creation of all things. 

Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, makes 
this statement: "He [God] hath spoken unto 

1 John i. 1-3. 2 Ibid 14. 



ATONEMENT. 67 

us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of 
all things, by whom also he made the worlds ; 
who being the brightness of his [God's] 
glory, and the express image of his person, 
and upholding all things by the word of his 
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, 
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on 
high." 1 John states that this person was the 
only begotten of the Father, Paul says he 
was the Son of God, the medium of divine reve- 
lation, the agent of divine creation, and the 
head of divine mediatorial government. He is 
heir of all things, upholds all things by the 
word of his power, purges or takes away the 
world's sin. and sits down at the right hand of 
the majesty on high. 

Paul also states : " For by him were all things 
created, that are in heaven and that are in 
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be 
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or 
powers: all things were created by him, and 
for him : and he is before all things, and by him 
all things consist. " 2 This language is applied 
to Christ, and as the author of atonement, asso- 
ciates him with the work of creation and provi- 

1 Hebrews i. 2, 3. 2 Colossians i. 16, 17. 



68 ATONEMENT. 

denee. All things were created by him and 
for him, as the Son of God and saviour of the 
world. 

"And what is the exceeding greatness of his 
power to us-ward who believe, according to the 
working of his mighty power, which he wrought 
in Christ when he raised him from the dead, 
and set him at his own right hand in the 
heavenly places, far above all principality, and 
power, and might, and dominion, and every name 
that is named, not only in this world, but also 
in that which is to come; and hath put all 
things under his feet, and gave him to be the 
head over all things to the church. " x This 
power is conferred upon Christ as mediator and 
saviour for the benefit of the church. The moral 
government of God extends to all worlds and 
beings; hence Jesus Christ as mediator and 
saviour must extend his authority and power 
wherever sin is actual or possible. 

The atonement as a divine arrangement for 
man's salvation from sin must exert its influ- 
ence in all worlds where rational and moral 
beings exist, otherwise the statement of the 
Apostle "that where sin abounds grace does 

1 Ephesians i. 19-22. 



ATONEMENT. 69 

much more abound " is not true. The universe 
is the theatre of redemption, and the influence 
of atonement is everywhere present " All the 
analogies of Nature, and all the conclusions of 
science tend to prove that other worlds in space 
are populated by rational and moral beings ; " 
and if so, they need the restoring, inspiring, 
and saving influence of the atonement. We do 
not know that sin originated in any other world 
than this, but we do know that some other 
world may have been colonized with sinners 
from this. We know that sinners have gone 
out of this life and this world in sin, and as 
they are immortal, must exist somewhere in 
God's universe; and wherever they are they 
need and will ultimately have salvation through 
atonement. 

The Apostle says in reference to this matter : 
"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, 
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us 
to God, being put to death in the flesh, but 
quickened by the spirit, by which he also went 
and preached unto the spirits in prison ; which 
sometime were disobedient, when once the long 
suffering of God waited in the days of Noah. " 1 

1 1 Peter iii. 18-20. 



70 ATONEMENT. 

This passage proves that the possibilities and 
opportunities for salvation are not all confined 
to this world and this life ; Christ reigns as king 
and saviour in all other worlds as well as in 
this. 

If it were true that God could not or would not 
save man anywhere but in this world and this 
life, who would be saved? It is certain that no 
one is perfectly saved from sin here; and if 
this life is the only time when men can be 
saved, and this world is the only place where 
they can be saved, and they are not saved here 
and now, salvation is to the race an impossible 
experience. 

But why should the possibilities of and the 
opportunities for salvation be limited to this 
world and this life? Is not the soul as a 
rational, moral being capable of knowing, be- 
lieving, loving, obeying, and worshipping God 
immortal? Is not God infinite, eternal, om- 
nipotent, omnipresent, benevolent, merciful, 
just, and unchangeable in all his attributes? 
Does he not occupy all space; fill with his 
presence, light, and love, all worlds, and live 
through all time? Why, then, is it possible for 
God to save a human soul frcm sin in this life, 



ATONEMENT. 71 

and not in some other life, — in this world, and 
not in some other world? Man being in his 
rational, moral, and religious nature immortal, 
why is it possible for him to be saved in this 
world and not in the next, in time and not in 
eternity? The Apostle Peter believed that man 
could be saved at any time and place in life, 
any world where God lived and loved. Hence 
we have the fact revealed to us that Christ 
having suffered for us, the just for the unjust, 
that he might bring or reconcile us to God, 
went in his spiritual person to preach his gospel 
of love and mercy to souls who had departed 
this life impenitent and unsaved. This is the 
view of this passage held by Bishop Plumptre, 
Nitzsch, Dr. Martensen, Dorner, Dr. Julius 
Miiller, and other learned German and English 
theologians ; and it should settle the question of 
the possibility of salvation after death. It con- 
nects the atonement of Christ not only with the 
salvation of souls in this world, but in all 
worlds where souls are found that need salva- 
tion. It sets aside the limitation men have 
placed upon the extent of the provisions of the 
atonement, and as to the time and place of 
their saving application. It makes the salva- 



72 ATONEMENT. 

tion of all men possible and probable, if not 
certain, it matters not in what world among 
the countless orbs of space they may have their 
local habitation. The atonement being a pro- 
vision of divine government to save man in 
harmony with moral law and moral order, must 
be as universal as the government itself. 
Wherever moral law is supreme, moral gov- 
ernment exists, and moral order is established, 
there the atonement is present as an inspiration 
to higher moral life and nobler moral action. 
And wherever moral order is disturbed, moral 
law violated, penalty disregarded, and author- 
ity ignored, there atonement comes as a new 
revelation of God, a new presentation of truth, 
a new manifestation of love, bringing new 
motives to repentance, reformation, and obedi- 
ence, and new hopes for deliverance from evil, 
salvation from sin, and reconciliation with 
God. 

IX. — The Mediatorial Reign op Christ and 
the Atonement. 

The inspired writers teach us that the aton- 
ing work of the Son of God is inseparably con- 
nected with his mediatorial reign. "And what 



ATONEMENT, 73 

is the exceeding greatness of his power to us- 
ward who believe, according to the working of 
his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ 
when he raised him from the dead, and set him 
at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 
far above all principality, and power, and might, 
and dominion, and every name that is named, 
not only in this world, but also in that which is 
to come; and hath put all things under his 
feet, and gave him to be the head over all 
things unto the church ; which is his body, the 
fulness of him that filleth all in all. " 1 

The mediatorial power of Christ, which places 
him at the right hand of God, and makes him 
head over all things unto the Church, is pre- 
sented as a part of the work of mediation which 
embraced his advent, death, and resurrection. 

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in 
Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 
but made himself of no reputation, and took 
upon him the form of a servant, and was made 
in the likeness of men; and being found in 
fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and be- 
came obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross. 

1 Ephesians i. 19-23. 



74 ATONEMENT. 

" Wherefore God also hath highly exalted 
him, and given him a name which is above 
every name: that at the name of Jesus every 
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things 
in earth, and things under the earth ; and that 
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ 
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. " x 

The Apostle here teaches us that the exalta- 
tion and universal dominion of Christ, as well 
as the universal subjection, obedience, and wor- 
ship of all men, are inseparably connected with, 
and largely resulted from, his incarnation, hu- 
miliation, and death. 

"Then cometh the end, when he shall have 
delivered up the kingdom to God, even the 
Father; when he shall have put down all rule 
and all authority and power. For he must reign 
till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 
For he hath put all things under his feet. But 
when he saith all things are put under him, it 
is manifest that he is excepted which did put 
all things under him. And when all things shall 
be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also 
himself be subject unto him that put all things 
under him, that God may be all in all" 2 

1 Philippians ii. 5-11. 2 1 Corinthians xv. 24-28. 



ATONEMENT. 75 

Christ was appointed mediator between God 
and man that he might conquer evil, subdue 
sin, destroy death, and establish the universal 
reign of righteousness, peace, and love. 

" And when he had taken the book, the four 
beasts and four and twenty elders fell down 
before the Lamb, having every one of them 
harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are 
the prayers of saints. And they sung a new 
song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, 
and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, 
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out 
of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
nation; and hast made us unto our God kings 
and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. 

"And I beheld, and heard the voice of many 
angels round about the throne and the beasts 
and the elders: and the number of them was 
ten thousand times ten thousand, and thou- 
sands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, 
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 
and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every 
creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, 
and under the earth, and such as are in the 
sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, 



76 ATONEMENT. 

Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be 
unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four 
beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty 
elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth 
for ever and ever. " 1 

In this sublime passage from inspired revela- 
tion, the final salvation of all creatures from 
sin, and their restoration to the worship and 
service of God are ascribed to the atoning work 
of Christ as effected by his suffering and death. 

X. — The Spiritual Mission of Christ Con- 
sistent with Atonement. 

The relation of Christ to humanity is a spir- 
itual relation. He came on a spiritual mission 
to teach spiritual truth, to reveal a spiritual 
law, to establish a spiritual kingdom, and to 
work out for man a spiritual deliverance. The 
one fact in the moral history of the race that 
made the incarnation and advent of Christ 
necessary was a moral and spiritual fact. Sin 
is the free act of man as a spiritual being. It 
is a violation of God's spiritual law, — a law 
that grows out of man's spiritual relation to 
God, his Creator and Father. 

1 Revelation v. 8-14. 



ATONEMENT. 77 

To save man from sin and consequences of this 
spiritual act of disobedience, Christ is promised 
in inspired prophecy. He came to conquer a 
spiritual foe, to subdue a spiritual rebellion, to 
free man from spiritual bondage, and to make 
him morally and spiritually a free son of God. 
This was the object of the advent of Christ. It 
was his work and mission according to his own 
teaching and the teaching of the Apostles. This 
feature of the mission of Christ the Jews failed 
to understand; this was caused by their pre- 
dominant materialism and selfishness; they 
could not understand either the spirituality or 
benevolence of Christ. This caused them to 
look upon the Jewish government and nation, 
the worship and ceremonial, as a divine end in 
itself, and not as a means to an end. They 
did not understand the spiritual and religious 
function of their own government, and therefore 
thought that Christ came on a political mis- 
sion, and to free them from subjection to the 
Roman Empire. This failure to understand 
the nature of the mission and work of Christ 
caused his rejection as the promised Messiah of 
the prophets. 1 

1 Liddon's Bampton Lectures, pp. 195, 198, 202, 206. 



78 ATONEMENT, 

History teaches us that the power of Christ 
and the power of the Christian religion result 
from the essential spirituality of the life, char- 
acter, and teaching of Christ. He taught the 
spirituality of God and the spirituality of men 
as children of God ; man's spiritual relation to 
God as his Father, and his spiritual relation to 
his fellow-men as brethren ; and as growing out 
of this relation the spiritual duty of love to God 
and love to man; and as resulting from this 
nature and relation, the immortality of the 
soul, and future eternal life. This teaching 
moved the world, and revolutionized the religion 
of the Roman Empire. 1 

These grand results of the spiritual mission 
of Christ are largely due to the atonement. It 
was from the first and is now a divinely ap- 
pointed means for the attainment of great spir- 
itual ends. The function of atonement in God's 
government is not legal, but moral and spir- 
itual. It is not an arrangement to satisfy law, 
but to save souls. As a revelation of God's 
love for man, it is the embodiment of wonderful 
moral and spiritual force. By reconciling man 
to God it opens the way for spiritual union and 
communion between God and man. 

1 See Roman History. 



ATONEMENT. 79 

"Being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Christ 
has made peace between man and God by the 
blood of his cross. The suffering of Christ for 
man reveals his love for him in a way that 
powerfully impresses his moral and spiritual 
nature, and quickens into life all his spiritual 
faculties. Christian piety is a glad and loyal 
obedience proceeding from personal love for 
Christ, which has been awakened by his love 
for us. This love is the fulfilling of the law,, 
and it casteth out all fear, which hath torment. 

XL — The Extent op the Atonement. 

In connection with this subject, and growing 
very naturally out of it, is the question, For 
whom has the atonement been made? Is the 
provision partial or universal? Are its saving 
benefits for all men or only for a chosen few? 
Does it constitute the rational ground for a uni- 
versal or a partial salvation? As a result of its 
provision and application, will all men be saved 
or only a part? These questions are of vital 
importance. In this connection they are prac- 
tical questions; for they involve our duties, 

1 Romans v. 1. 



80 ATONEMENT. 

responsibilities, and hopes. If the atonement 
is universal, then the possible, if not the cer- 
tain, salvation of all is assured. This places 
the responsibility of salvation on man himself, 
and this is where it should be placed. Every 
man should feel that whatever may be the 
divine purpose in regard to the final destiny of 
the race, under the atonement the question of 
salvation is a personal and a practical one, a 
question that is to be largely determined by 
himself. Man should feel that in salvation he 
has not only a personal interest, but in regard 
to it personal responsibility, obligation, and 
duty. It is in a very important sense his work. 
He should know and feel this. As a truth it 
should take hold on his intellect, emotions, and 
will. As the atonement is a doctrine and a 
fact of revelation, its extent must be largely 
determined by the same authority. What is 
the testimony of the inspired writers on the 
subject? 

" Who gave himself a ransom for all. " 1 
"Therefore as by the offence of one judgment 
came upon all men to condemnation; even so 
by the righteousness of one the free gift came 

1 1 Timothy ii 6. 



ATONEMENT. 81 

upon all men unto justification of life. " " For 
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall 
all be made alive." "In thee shall all the na- 
tions of the earth be blessed." He is ".the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the 
world." "If any man sin, we have, an advocate 
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous : and 
he is the propitiation for our sins : and not for 
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole 
world." "And we have seen and do testify that 
the Father sent the son to be the Saviour of the 
world. " John " came for a witness, to bear wit- 
ness of the Light, that all men through him 
might believe. That was the true light, which 
lighteth every man that cometh into the world." 
"Moreover the law entered, that the offence 
might abound. But where sin abounded, grace 
did much more abound: that as sin hath 
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign 
through righteousness unto eternal life by 
Jesus Christ our Lord." "Who will have all 
men to be saved, and to come unto the know- 
ledge of the truth." "Who is the Saviour of 
all men, especially of those that believe." 
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have 



82 ATONEMENT. 

turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord 
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. " 

In these passages which we have quoted from 
the Word of God, the inspired writers employ 
nearly every universal term in our language to 
set forth the atonement as a divine provision 
for the salvation of all men. The terms 
" men, " " every man, " " the world, " " the whole 
world," u all the earth," show that there is no 
limitation in the extent of the atonement as the 
provision of infinite love for man's salvation. 
These terms teach universal salvation, or there 
are no words in human language that will teach 
it. According to this teaching all men — every 
creature of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and 
peoples — are embraced in this great salvation of 
God. The teaching of the Scriptures on the ex- 
tent of the atonement shows this work to be in 
harmony with all the analogies of nature and 
life. All God's relations are universal. He 
is the universal creator, the universal preserver, 
the universal providence, the universal Father, 
the universal lawgiver and judge. It would be 
very strange if he were not the universal 
saviour. All his provisions for man are uni- 
versal. The earth, the atmosphere, sunshine, 



ATONEMENT. 83 

moisture, light, heat, electricity, and all the 
natural conditions of life are for all. Tt would 
be a violation of Nature's established order to 
put a limitation on atonement and circumscribe 
salvation; universal atonement is the natural 
and rational outcome of the nature, perfections, 
and relations of God. How could the infinite 
Father of all souls make a limited atonement? 
How could he provide a salvation that did not 
embrace all his children? How could infinite 
knowledge, wisdom, power, justice, and benevo- 
lence be exercised in, or satisfied with, making 
a limited and partial provision for man's moral 
and spiritual needs? Such a thing would be 
impossible to the nature of God. All the love 
of his infinite nature cries out against the mon- 
strous conclusion. The idea is a libel upon his 
great goodness as revealed in all nature; a 
universal atonement is demanded by the nature 
and wants of man ; all men are capable of sal- 
vation, and all men need salvation. There are 
in every man's nature rational^ moral, and re- 
ligious elements, which may be organized into 
a Christian life, and builded into a Christian 
character. These are the moral elements and 
religious emotions of our common humanity. 



84 ATONEMENT. 

On them is grounded all morality and religion ; 
they lay the foundation in humanity for the 
possibility, probability, certainty, and need of 
salvation. They form the anthropology of Uni- 
versalism. In them we have the human bed- 
rock of all ethics, piety, and religion. 

It is for this — the moral and religious side 
of humanity — the atonement has been pro- 
vided. It is to these emotions and affections it 
makes its appeal; to them it brings light, love, 
joy, hope, and consolation. Here we have the 
provision in man's moral and religious consti- 
tution for universal salvation; here we have 
the want revealed, and also a promise of the 
supply to be provided. Salvation is human; it 
is a human want, a human hope, and a human 
experience. It becomes human life, human 
love, and human happiness; it is this part of 
man's nature that receives, applies, and is saved 
by the atonement. 

Universal atonement provides for the full, 
free, and sincere offer of salvation to all men. 
If it were limited, made only for the benefit of 
the few, no such offer could be honestly made. 
As salvation on its divine side is grounded in 
the atonement, in its. extent it cannot transcend 



ATONEMENT. 85 

it. The offer of salvation should therefore be 
limited to those for whom the atonement is 
made. As the atonement is the means, and 
salvation the end, it is evident the end cannot 
be attained where the means do not operate. 
Universal salvation can only be offered sin- 
cerely on the ground of atonement for all ; this 
involves the right to offer, and the duty to ac- 
cept the offer of salvation. We have the right 
to offer salvation only to those for whom we 
know it has been provided, and how can we 
possibly know this unless it has been provided 
for all? If the provision is universal, we should 
make the offer universal ; if it is not, we should 
make no offer at all, because we do not and 
cannot know to whom we should make it. We 
are not under obligation to accept an offer of 
salvation unless we know it was provided for 
us, and how can we know it was provided for 
us unless it was provided for all? If it was 
provided for all, we know it was provided for 
us, because we are part of all. Universal 
atonement and universal salvation, which is 
grounded on it and is practically a part of it, is 
the only theory of the work of Christ which can 
justify the ministry in making an offer of sal- 



86 ATONEMENT. 

vation, or make it the duty of man to ac- 
cept it. -This is one of the practical aspects 
of Universalism which should be more fre- 
quently presented to the people in our pulpit 
ministrations. 

XII. — The Atonement and Man. 

Man is a moral and religious being, endowed 
with moral and religious faculties, sustaining 
moral relations, and owing moral and religious 
duties ; but for this fact, morality and religion, 
as forms of human activity and modes of human 
development, would be unknown. They are both 
in one sense practically human creations ; they 
have grown out of man's nature and wants. It 
is this nature that gives to laws their authority, 
and to religious institutions their sacredness. 

The moral and religious nature of man, which 
is the human basis of law and order and the 
foundation of Church and State, has recognized 
the great principle of atonement in practical, 
domestic, social, and business life, and also in 
the offering of religious sacrifices. The prin- 
ciple of atonement thus practically and reli- 
giously recognized is the great law of God's 
providence, — revealed alike in Nature, man, 



ATONEMENT. 87 

and the Bible, — that we can suffer for the good 
of our fellow-men, and that they are blessed and 
saved by and through our suffering. 

This principle of human action is universal 
in its application, and as old as human society; 
the fact is, society could not exist without it. It 
is the great law of love in domestic and social 
life ; it is the law of benevolence between men 
and the law of heaven as revealed in the action 
of the Father and the Son in making atonement 
for man. This principle is the very essence of 
atonement. It is the law of life in all Nature, 
the law of love in all society, the law of sacri- 
fice in all religion, and the law of reconciliation 
in all divinity. 

As grounded alike in the nature of God and 
man, it is stronger than law and older than 
government. It is, in fact, the benevolent source 
and fountain of both. Under the existence of 
this law the atonement became possible, and 
by its application to God and man was made 
actual. It is sustained by the whole moral 
nature of man ; human society is builded on it ; 
benevolent institutions grow out of it; the 
Church has been created by it. Christian civili- 
zation is the tidal wave of its movement in the 



88 ATONEMENT. 

world; and all human progress is but the evolu- 
tion of its power as connected with the growth 
of institutions. 

This law, though old as humanity, is always 
new. It is as much a part of social life to-day 
as it ever was. The demand for it now is as 
great as it was in the days of Christ. Man in 
contact with sin and sorrow always needs an 
atonement; the soul is ever crying out for rec- 
onciliation; mistakes, errors, and sins con- 
stantly need to be atoned for; to suffer with 
sinners and for sinners is as necessary now as 
at any period of the world's history. Love is 
still the divine influence which reconciles man 
to God and to his brother man. There are 
Gethsemanies and Calvaries now as of yore. 
Souls still cry out in agony, " If it be possible, 
let this cup pass." Saviors still throw them- 
selves into the breach and die, that principles, 
country, or men may live. The great fact in 
history, and the great moral law in the nature 
of God and man by which it became a fact, — 
that is, man's salvation through atonement, — 
is the basal fact in Christianity, and the central 
fact in all history. 

Not only the law but the fact of atonement 



ATONEMENT. 89 

has also been woven into everything, — law, 
literature, music, painting, architecture, sculp- 
ture, and poetry. It gives life, color, and form 
to worship, and inspiration and motive to 
Christian effort. It is the foundation, and 
should be the life, of the Church. The living 
spiritual body of Christ has been builded and 
organized by it. These facts show that the 
atonement, in its principle, law, and fact, is 
adapted to man's nature, meets his moral neces- 
sities, is in harmony with his moral intuitions, 
and is sustained as a practical law of life by his 
conscience. It meets the requirements of moral 
government, sustains moral order, enforces 
moral law, and upholds the divine administra- 
tion, at the same time that it provides for the 
salvation of man. It does this, not by a legal 
fiction, but by the action of a great moral force. 
The action of this force is spiritually vital to 
the moral nature of man, the social organiza- 
tion called society, the spiritual life of the 
Church. The action of all organisms, whether 
vegetable, animal, moral, or spiritual, is vital 
and vicarious. We see this in the plant, the 
animal, the family, society, and the Church. 
Everywhere we see the parts, or members, of 



90 ATONEMENT. 

organisms suffering with and for each other. 
This is the law of God, the law of Nature, the 
law of life, the law of society, and the law 
under which alone atonement became possible, 
and by the application of which it was made a 
fact. 

This law is vital, benevolent, social, and 
organic. It builds molecules into organisms; 
it builds individuals into families, communi- 
ties, and general society. It reconciles God to 
man, and men to each other. It is the law of 
conjugal union, domestic harmony, and family 
peace; it is the bond of brotherhood to the 
nations, prevents war, and preserves and in- 
sures peace. It brings man into union with God, 
and God into communion with man; it unites 
heaven and earth, and makes the universe the 
happy home of God, men, and angels. 

XIII. — The Atonement and Faith. 

We as Christians live by faith, walk by faith, 
are justified by faith, and saved by faith. 
" Without faith it is impossible to please God. " 
" Being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ ; by whom 
also we have access by faith into this grace 



ATONEMENT. 91 

wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the 
glory of God. And not only so, but we glory 
in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation 
worketh patience ; and patience, experience ; and 
experience, hope : and hope maketh not ashamed ; 
because the love of God is shed abroad in our 
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto 
us." 1 

The Apostle shows in this passage that faith 
connects us with Christ and his atonement, 
through whom we are justified, reconciled, and 
have peace, joy, love, patience, experience, and 
hope. It is faith that establishes the vital 
union between the human soul and Christ ; and 
all these spiritual blessings come to us as the 
results of this living and organic union with 
the Son of God. There can be no living union 
with God, man, and Christ, or man and man, 
without faith. Faith is the natural, necessary, 
and universal condition of such union. Wher- 
ever this union of souls exists, there we always 
find faith as its living bond. 

We may have physical and mental contact 
with men without faith, but no vital union of 
two personal, spiritual natures. Two spiritual 

i Romans v. 1-5. 



92 ATONEMENT. 

natures cannot become morally united without 
confidence. This is the life of true friendship, 
and the social bond and business tie of the 
world. It is this bond of faith, this personal 
confidence, this supreme act of the soul's trust, 
that calls into united and harmonious action 
the intellect, emotions, and will, and is made of 
thought, feeling, and volition, that unites the 
soul of man vitally, morally, and spiritually 
with God and Christ. It is this faith that 
makes love possible and real between man and 
God ; love would be impossible without it. 

It is the function of atonement to create, or 
call into action, faith, as the bond of union be- 
tween man and God. It does this by revealing 
to man God's great love for him. This knowl- 
edge awakens confidence, as emotion is born of 
thought. This is eternal or spiritual life, — to 
know God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. 
This life is the result of the union which faith 
establishes between man and God; and this 
faith is born of the atonement. Establish this 
organic union of the soul with God by faith, 
and the spiritual life of God flows into the 
human soul, and man knows by experience the 
power and sweetness of the life of God ; this is 



ATONEMENT. 93 

salvation. "For ye are saved by grace, through 
faith: that not of yourselves; it is the gift of 
God. " Grace as revealed in the atonement is 
the cause, faith is the condition, man the sub- 
ject, and God the benevolent giver of salvation. 
It is a divine gift, a gracious work, a human 
experience, a spiritual change, and a new life. 

XIV. — The Atonement and Salvation. 

Salvation is deliverance from some form of 
evil. If the ignorant man becomes educated, 
he is saved from ignorance ; if the diseased man 
is healed, he is saved from disease ; if the poor 
man becomes rich, he is saved from poverty. 
When the drunkard reforms, he is saved from 
drunkenness; when the sinner repents and re- 
forms, he is saved from sin. Salvation is a per- 
sonal change in man's nature, life, conduct, 
character, and experience ; no one can be saved 
by proxy. The change must take place in his 
own thoughts, feelings, spirit, purposes, actions, 
life, and character. When a man becomes the 
subject of these changes, he is conscious of it; 
it is a matter of knowledge, it is a new experi- 
ence. He begins to feel the throbbing of a new 
life, comes into new relations, really and prac- 



94 ATONEMENT. 

tically. So to speak, he is born into a new 
world, forms new plans, is influenced by new 
motives, lives for higher and nobler ends; he 
is morally and spiritually alive. He has been 
raised from the death of sin and the grave of 
lust into a new spiritual and divine life. Old 
things have passed away, — all things have be- 
come new. In some sense he has new joys and 
sorrows, new pleasures and pains, new hopes 
and fears. He is saved from sin, — its pollu- 
tion, power, slavery, remorse, shame, and fear. 

Salvation is growth and development. Man 
grows from the animal to the spiritual, divine, 
and eternal life; he develops new affections, 
sympathies, and tastes. We grow out of the 
animal into the spiritual, and out of the earthly 
into the heavenly; we grow out of sin into 
holiness, out of hate into love, out of selfishness 
into benevolence, out of error into the truth, 
out of vice into virtue, out of doubt into confi- 
dence. Our natures, faculties, and powers all 
grow; the intellect, reason, conscience, heart, 
and will are all developed into new strength 
and purity. 

We are commanded to grow in grace and in 
the knowledge and love of God. In spiritual de- 



ATONEMENT. 95 

velopment we have babes in Christ, young men 
and women in the Lord, and fathers in the 
Church. Christian life is illustrated by the 
germ, the plant, the blade, the ear, and the per- 
fected corn in the ear. We have the bud, the 
blossom, the young and afterward the matured 
fruit. Salvation is not an instantaneous, but a 
gradual work. We are not born perfect, but grow 
into perfection. Character is not created; it 
grows. Christian life is a process of develop- 
ment ; we grow into moral strength and beauty. 
Salvation is enjoyment; an important part of it 
is happiness. Enjoyment does not result from 
the possession so much as from the exercise of 
our faculties. It is the use we make of them that 
brings enjoyment. Our developed and perfected 
powers in exercise will augment and increase 
our happiness. Man was made not only to be 
useful but to be happy ; he was created for, and 
adapted to it. It naturally results from the 
use of his faculties and the exercise of his 
powers in a rational way. Such an exercise 
of the faculties with which God has endowed 
us is a Christian duty; and happiness comes 
from and in the discharge of duty. 

That happiness is a part of salvation is 



96 ATONEMENT. 

clearly taught by the inspired writers. Paul 
says that the spiritual kingdom established in 
the believer's heart consists " not in meat and 
drink, but in righteousness, peace, and joy in 
the Holy Ghost." Christ says: "I give unto 
you my joy, that your joy may be full. " " We 
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by 
whom we have now received the atonement." 
"By whom also we have access by faith into 
this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in 
hope of the glory of God. " 2 These testimonies 
to the joy of the Christian life show that happi- 
ness is an important element in salvation. 

The atonement is distinctly connected with 
salvation as the divinely appointed means to 
this end. "His name shall be called Jesus, 
for he shall save his people from their sins." 
This statement shows that the salvation that 
Jesus shall bring is salvation from sin, and not 
from punishment. If punishment is adapted to 
restrain man from sin and to reform his life 
and character, it would not be well or benevo- 
lent to save him from it. As it is needful for 
man and exists for his good, it is best that he 
should endure it until he has been reformed. 

1 Romans v. 2. 



ATONEMENT. 97 

Punishment and atonement are associated in 
the moral economy of the universe. They are 
conditions of, and essential to, its moral order. 
This is the lesson of history and experience. 
They are both rooted in the moral nature of God, 
and sustained by the moral nature of man ; they 
are united in the divine plan of human salva- 
tion, as different means working to the same 
end, — just as death and life are both processes 
in building the human organism. Like hunger 
and food, thirst and drink, disease and remedy, 
in God's natural economy, they are united for 
man's good, and co-operate for man's salvation. 

Punishment is the moral pain that prompts 
the soul to make an effort to free itself from 
sin; and the atonement imparts strength for 
this work by the mighty motives of divine love 
and human hope. These are the two vital ele- 
ments of all moral and spiritual life ; they are 
essential to the work of salvation. 

Punishment is the pain caused by the great 
need of the soul to be saved from sin ; and the 
atonement gives the grace by which the need is 
met and the demand satisfied, in the personal 
consciousness of God's forgiving and sanctify- 
ing love. Punishment is the pain of the soul's 

7 



98 ATONEMENT. 

hunger and thirst for the bread and water of 
life, which moves man to seek these forms of 
spiritual good ; and they are found in the love, 
sympathy, and peace of God revealed in the 
atonement. In this way punishment, which is 
a suffering condition of the soul caused by sin, 
and the atonement, which manifests God's love 
for the sinner, are united in the work of salva- 
tion. The one prepares the way for the other, 
and shows man his great need of it. Punish- 
ment and salvation in God's moral economy 
and in man's experience are not legal; they are 
vital. They are not merely forms of law and 
decrees of courts, they are facts in the moral 
history of the soul's life and growth; they are 
a part of the soul itself. The relation of pun- 
ishment and atonement to man is not a legal, 
but a vital relation. The function which they 
perform under God's government and in man's 
development is not legal, but morally and spir- 
itually vital ; they have to do with the highest 
forms of life known to the universe of God. 
The process of the soul's salvation is a vital 
process ; it is a part of the soul's life. The ex- 
perience of salvation is vital ; it is an experience 
of moral, spiritual life ; it is a part of our con- 



ATONEMENT. 99 

sciousness, and we know it as we know our- 
selves, and because we know ourselves. 

The results of salvation are not legal, but 
vital; they do not change our legal relations 
to the law and the universe, but they affect 
only our vital relations. Before we are saved 
we are dead to the law, to God, to the moral 
universe. When we are saved we become 
morally and spiritually alive to everything. 
We have a consciousness of God, we feel his 
presence; the spirit of law has been taken 
into and become a part of our moral life. 
The moral forces of the universe warm us like 
sunshine, nourish us like food, vitalize us like 
the atmosphere ; they enter into and become a 
part of our whole intellectual, moral, and spir- 
itual being. In the exercise of the strength 
thus imparted, the soul throws off the slavery 
of sin, and becomes a free spiritual son of God. 
Appetite is restrained ; passions are controlled, 
thoughts directed, affections governed, energies 
applied ; and conscience is master in the empire 
of the soul. 

Under the stimulation and nourishment im- 
parted by God, nature, and humanity, there is 
growth of man's spirit into all forms of grace, 



100 ATONEMENT. 

strength, and beauty. His moral life is many- 
sided ; there is unity, symmetry, harmony, and 
variety in man's spiritual development. The 
result is that he develops a noble manhood, 
builds a strong character, and lives a beautiful 
and useful life. But the result of the posses- 
sion of such a nature, the exercise of such 
faculties, the use of such powers, and the living 
of such a life, is much enjoyment. Such a man 
is a happy man ; in such a life there must be 
much of brightness, sunshine, gladness, and 
joy. This is salvation, — the greatest vital fact 
and the grandest vital movement in all the 
universe. 



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